“Integrity is doing the right thing” – High Country News – Know the West

“Dry vacuumed”Provides an important and powerful look at the dairy mega-industry. Riverview LLP’s repeated disregard for people, water and climate is telling. The company is destroying the water supply in the states in which it operates, leaving thousands of people with dry wells. The carbon and methane emissions from these mega-dairies are arguably immoral, given the long-term impacts these emissions will have on the climate that our children will be forced to endure.

The West will continue to experience significant groundwater depletion and climate-damaging industrial agriculture expansions until states act in the interest of the public and our future generations. And this mega-dairy industry will soon be faced with the realities of long-term droughts, extreme heat, and carbon and methane royalties. Additionally, with climate change, the public will find that dairy and cheese products are not the best use of limited water supplies. These are not essential foods, and the massive government subsidies given to this industry are not the best use of our public money.

I suspect Riverview won’t work in these places for decades, but probably long enough to ruin aquifers, water quality, and local communities. According to Riverview spokesperson Kevin Wulf, “Integrity is about doing the right thing. “

Daniel D. Heagerty
Mill Valley, California